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A&E Shelves Those Who Kill

Network plans to re-launch Chloë Sevigny drama

After two weeks of soft ratings, A&E has taken the new Chloë Sevigny crime drama Those Who Kill out of commission.

The network plans to re-launch the series at a later date, and in a new timeslot. (Having passed on the Michael Bay pilot Occult last fall, A&E has a lot riding on Those Who Kill, which is its lone new scripted series. The fate of the Leslie Greif comedy pilot, Whitey, is still up in the air.)

Those Who Kill bowed Monday, March 3, to just 1.44 million viewers and a 0.5 rating in the adults 18-49 demo. That same night, lead-in Bates Motel, which shifted to the 9 p.m. slot to make room for Kill, delivered 3.07 million viewers and a 1.3 in the demo.

If losing 62 percent of its cushy lead-in audience weren’t bad enough, Kill returned this week to a mere 838,000 viewers and a 0.3 rating, squandering 67 percent of its Bates Motel lead-in.

Effective next Monday (March 17), Bates Motel will return to the 10 p.m. slot. A&E hopes the move will help boost the ratings for the critically acclaimed drama, which takes its cues as much from Twin Peaks as it does Hitchcock’s Psycho.

Monday’s episode was the series’ least-watched, lowest-rated installment, scaring up 2.22 million viewers and a 0.9 in the 18-49 demo. Season 1 of Bates Motel averaged 2.75 million viewers and a 1.2 rating.

A&E closed out 2013 ranked fifth among general entertainment cable nets, averaging 813,000 adults 18-49 per night and 867,000 adults 25-54. The network was also the No. 5 destination for women 18-49 and ranked fifth among women 25-54.